Gloves Off Among Late-Night's Gladiators

By BILL CARTER

Published: June 16, 1991

All the other empires of network television have long since fallen. CBS News self-destructed. "The Today Show" slid, recovered, then slid again. Bart Simpson took a bite out of Bill Cosby. ABC stopped covering the Olympics. NBC stopped covering baseball.

But one last corner of network supremacy remains: at NBC, the late-night empire is intact. So far.

For more than 30 years the royal metaphor has been apt: Johnny Carson was the unchallenged king of late-night. The pretenders who appeared on the scene, from Joey Bishop to Joan Rivers to Pat Sajak, were dispatched like so many fleas.

Next May the late-night power will change hands, bloodlessly, from Mr. Carson to the latest of his regular replacement hosts, the comedian Jay Leno. With Mr. Carson will go his lieutenants, the announcer Ed McMahon ("Heeeeere's Johnny!") and the sartorially astounding bandleader Doc Severinsen. Already NBC executives are emphasizing that the "franchise," as they call the "Tonight" show, will go on as before.

Still, much is different since the last time the guard changed. In 1962, when Mr. Carson took over for Jack Paar, the main competition was "The Late Show" on CBS -- black and white movies from the 1940's.

When Mr. Leno is introduced for the first time as the permanent host of "Tonight" on May 25, the late-night field will be considerably more crowded:

* Ted Koppel has been established for more than a decade on ABC's "Nightline," for the audience interested in news.

* Arsenio Hall has carved out a niche among younger viewers with his syndicated, entertainment-oriented show.

* CBS has begun to build a following for its new lineup of crime dramas, more modestly budgeted but somewhat harder edged than those seen in prime time.

* ABC will try to revise its follow-up to "Nightline" beginning in the next few weeks, when it reworks the "Into the Night" program with new hosts to replace Rick Dees, who will move into a production job.

* Ron Reagan, former Presidential son, says he will mix "issues" with interviews in a new syndicated show scheduled to start in August.

* Dennis Miller, late of the "Weekend Update" segment on "Saturday Night Live," will get his own yet-to-be-defined show, also in syndication, in the fall.

Then there is cable: movies on HBO, sports on ESPN and zircon rings on the Home Shopping Network.

The main reason late-night television has become the most fiercely competitive television arena outside prime time is entirely predictable: there is a lot of money to be made. As Rick Ludwin, senior vice president of late-night programs for NBC, put it: "The comedy-talk shows are not expensive to produce. You have a regular format that uses the same set every night. Once you amortize those fixed costs, you can make a lot of money in a hurry."

The comedy-host-with-sidekick, band, couch and guests format has been the late-night standard since Steve Allen set it on "Tonight" in the 1950's. The variations have to do largely with the hosts' personalities. Mr. Carson is playful and most broadly comic; Mr. Leno is acerbic but gentle, curious as an interviewer; David Letterman is pointed and hip in his humor; Mr. Hall is attuned to whatever is hot in show business. The best late-night comics are timely in their humor; Mr. Carson has become one of the leading political and social commentators in America, thanks to his always-current opening monologues.

Each show attracts a certain sort of celebrity guest: Mr. Carson has the biggest names in show business, but he is also famous for introducing new talent, especially comedians. Mr. Leno says he wants to de-emphasize show-business guests in favor of some newsmakers. Mr. Letterman has always sought guests who would generate the most humor. Mr. Hall has brought in more cutting-edge performers, especially musicians. The shows sometimes aggressively fight for bookings.

Given that late-night programming plays to those who stay up past the late local news, it tends to attract mostly young viewers, especially young men who are otherwise difficult to reach. So many advertisers like to spend money on late-night shows.

For example, a senior industry executive said that this past year Arsenio Hall's show, which quickly caught on with younger urban viewers , made about $1.2 million in profits a week for its syndicator, Paramount. That adds up to $62.4 million a year, more money than the company makes from TV's most popular prime-time series, "Cheers," and more than most movies generate.

NBC has built a powerful late-night block, following "Tonight" with "Late Night With David Letterman" and "Later With Bob Costas." The three shows are the biggest money-making group of programs in television.

By most estimates, Mr. Carson's show alone has taken in about $100 million a year for NBC. The network's decision to alter its winning formula by replacing Mr. Carson with Mr. Leno has an economic incentive. Mr. Carson's pay -- salary, production commitments and ownership rights in both his show and Mr. Letterman's -- has been estimated at about $25 million a year. Mr. Leno is likely to be paid about $3 million a year.

Still, given the profit generated by Mr. Carson, this decision is one of the highest risks taken in recent television history.